Create a transparent watercourse in Vue dEsprit 4

To get started, you will need Vue dEsprit 4, a paint program, and
a seamless stone or pebble texture. If you do not have a stone
texture, you can easily download one from the Internet. Open the
stone texture in your paint program and make any color or size
adjustments to fit your image. Duplicate your texture image and
create a bump map.

Still in your paint program, create a new image that is 512 x 512
pixels with a white background. With your Paint Brush tool draw a
curved shape, using a light grey. Now invert your image; this will
become the plane for the stony base. Save this image as
waterpiece.jpg.

Next, open Vue dEsprit, click New and open the atmosphere editor,
click the Sun tab with the following settings: Azimuth = 81.66,
Pitch = 49.59, Glow Intensity = 25%.

See the numbered image to follow along. Double-click the new
terrain or double-click its name in the world browser, this will
open the terrain editor [1]. Toggle your terrain to top view by
clicking the small icon on the top left. [2] Increase the
resolution to 512 x 512. Click [3] Reset, and [4] Picture, this [5]
opens the small window so you can load your waterpiece.jpg file.
After loading the image, click OK in the small window, but do not
close the terrain editor yet. [6] Clip your terrain to 4.8. Then
click the [7] Effects tab. Click 4 times on Stones. This will
create stones everywhere. More then you need, so you will have to
remove some. Click the [8] Paint tab, uncheck the airbrush, select
Dig and remove the stones around the water piece. When done click
OK.

Place your terrain as shown in image 4, and map it with your stone
material. To apply the bump map, by double-clicking the material
window. This opens the material editor. Click the Bumps tab.
Right-click in the Bumps production window and select Edit Function
from the list. In the new window, click Mapped Value. Click the new
Picture button, search the stone bump map on your disk, click
OK, and OK again to close all windows. In the World Browser rename
this terrain base, right click, and copy/past. Rename the copy to
water and map with Foamy Water from the Liquids. Move the
water terrain slightly over your stony terrain, click save. To
create realistic water, select the water terrain and double-click
in the material window. This opens the material editor. Click the
Highlights tab and bring Highlight global intensity and global size
to 50% each. Click the Transparency tab and move the Refraction
index slider to exactly 1.33. Blurred Transparencies should be set
to 0, and Fading Out at 70%. The Reflection tab sliders must be at
0. Now click the Effects tab and set the sliders to the following
values: Diffuse = 23%, Ambient = 77% (diffuse and ambient need to
equal 100% to avoid incoherent lighting), Luminous = 32%, Contrast
= 12%, and click save.

Next, create two terrains: one for each side of the watercourse.
Double-click on the terrain icon to open the Terrain editor. Remove
terrain until it matches the shape of your water piece. Click
Paint, Dig and select the airbrush with a low flow to create a soft
slope that follows the shape of the river. Clip your terrain to
view what your new terrain in Vue (see image 5). You can come back
later to the Terrain editor to Dig or to add a terrain. When you
are satisfied, place both terrains on either side of the water.
Give any additional terrains texture, and in the distance, add
large terrains with mountains. This will give a nice background.
Map it with a rock or landscape material (see image 6).

Now add plants, trees, and flowers. An excellent source of free
plants and flowers is available through PlantStudio
[www.kurtz-fernhout.com]. Dont forget to also add rocks and
stones. To finish the image you need sunlight shining trough the
trees. Use a volumetric spotlight, tinted to a light yellow tone.
When your trees are in the right position, place a spotlight so it
shines through the leaves. Because Vues leaves are not
transparent, it is best to try several settings. Bring the sun
between the branches. Opposite the sunlight, and behind the camera,
place an additional directional light, and make it shadowless and
tint a light grey tone. This balances the sunlight, and softens the
shadows and lets the details of the plants and the water viewable
[to make a light shadowless, select the light and uncheck enable
shadows]. Render your image and adjust the water little more up or
down until you are satisfied with the final image.

Some general notes: For more variety to the vegetation, use
alternate leaves for your trees or plants. Scatter small terrains,
rocks and grass to cover empty spaces around the water border. Most
importantly, be patient, review your image a day or two after you
have created it, and make changes, if needed. For additional Vue
dEsprit tutorials please visit my web site: www.guitta.net .

####

Who is gebe (Guitta Bertaud)? I
think I was born as an artist. Since I could hold a pen in my hand,
I always were drawing., painting; on Paper, on canvas. Later I
studied fine art in Paris and became a free lance painter and
designer. In discovering computers, I also discovered all these
marvellous 2D painting programs and became completely addicted to
this kind of creation. I became then a designer for logos and
graphics for web pages, working mostly with vector programs. My
discover of 3D was a little later, when I found Vue dEsprit
version 1 as a shareware in a Computer Magazine some years ago. I
saw some amazing work created with it and since this moment Ive
never stopped to love it. My projects? I have so many projects in
my head, my heart and my hands. Learning animation is the very next
one. Thanks to Poser, Vue dEsprit and my brand new Carrara 1 I
will have lots of happy artistic moments to live in the near
future.

Article Comments

tradivoro ()
posted at 12:00AM Fri, 04 June 2004

Great tutorial Guitta, if anybody can show us new and inspiring ways to use Vue, it's you... :) Thanks for all your other tutorials over the years that have taught all us who are trying to get better with Vue d'Esprit... :)

Thanks so much for the tutorial, Guitta, and all the other tutorials, freebies, and help you've given the Vue community. You've made it much easier for many of us to get started and continue with Vue and Vue Pro, and enjoy ourselves while using it!

TheWingedOne ()
posted at 12:00AM Mon, 07 June 2004

Many thanks for creating such a superb tutorial, Guitta! Again you did an exeptional contribution to the community. :)))

xoconostle ()
posted at 12:00AM Wed, 09 June 2004

Well-written and very useful tutorial! Thanks as always for your help and generosity, Gutta. :-) Dean